\u201cThe challenge we are having is a lack of interest by federal prosecutors to charge illicit marijuana cases,\u201d said Ray Donovan, the former chief of operations of the Drug Enforcement Administration. \u201cThey don\u2019t realize all the implications. Marijuana causes so much crime at the local level, gun violence in particular. The same groups selling thousands of pounds of marijuana are also laundering millions of dollars of fentanyl money. It\u2019s not just one-dimensional.\u201d<\/p>\n
The expansion into the cannabis market is propelling the rise of Chinese organized crime as a global powerhouse, current and former national security officials say. During the past decade, Chinese mafias became the dominant money launderers for Latin American cartels dealing narcotics including fentanyl, which has killed hundreds of thousands of Americans. The huge revenue stream from marijuana fuels that laundering apparatus, which is \u201cthe most extensive network of underground banking in the world,\u201d said a former senior DEA official, Donald Im.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe profits from the marijuana trade allow the Chinese organized criminal networks to expand their underground global banking system for cartels and other criminal organizations,\u201d said Im, who was an architect of the DEA\u2019s fight against Chinese organized crime.<\/p>\n
U.S. law enforcement struggles to respond to this multifaceted threat. State and federal agencies suffer from a lack of personnel who know Chinese language and culture well enough to investigate complex cases, infiltrate networks or translate intercepts, current and former officials say. A federal shift of priorities to counterterrorism after 2001 meant resources dedicated to Chinese organized crime dwindled \u2014 while the power of the underworld grew.<\/p>\n
And the shadow of the Chinese state hovers over it all…. <\/p>\n
Read it all<\/a>.<\/p>\n Officials estimate the value of the illegal marijuana market grown in Oklahoma at somewhere between $18 billion and $44 billion a year.<\/p>\n Investigators have found links to foreign mafias and say that more than 80% of the groups are of Chinese origin. https:\/\/t.co\/A4WKYfaCet<\/a><\/p>\n — ProPublica (@propublica) March 16, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n \n